


Control

by TheIceQueen



Series: Buttercreams and friends prompts. [7]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Awesome Byron, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Holding Hands, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Male Friendship, Scared Joe, Sleep Deprivation, Sleep Paralysis, Sleepiness, Worried Byron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-21 18:55:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14921028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIceQueen/pseuds/TheIceQueen
Summary: Prompt:I'd love to see your take on Joe's trouble sleeping that he mentioned in vlogs a few months back, maybe including the others being worried about him or something?





	Control

Byron had had a great day, long but definitely a good one. He was tired enough to just find something to eat and explore how much of it he would get down before passing out on the couch. He tried to be quiet going in the apartment, it was late and hopefully Joe would be asleep. He hadn’t slept much the last few days.

From the kitchen Byron could see the back of the couch and chuckled to himself when he noticed the top of Joe’s hair peeping out from the side of it. He was resting his head on the armrest. Quietly, Byron walked over to see that Joe was fast asleep. He picked up a blanket and smiled at the inevitable mother-hen jokes that would be fired the next day, while he slowly placed it over Joe. There was no need for him to wake up, just from being cold.

Without making a sound he grabbed his plate in the kitchen and decided that he would eat in bed then. On the way out of the room he noticed something in the corner of his eye. Joe’s hands were twitching. Bryon thought it was just a vivid dream, but when he turned his head to be sure he saw Joe’s eyes. Wide open. He placed the plate on the coffee table as he sat down on it himself, and looked at his roommate, frozen in place except for his small hand movements and kinda shaking his head, in tiny jolts.

It looked like a seizure, granted, Byron had never seen a seizure, but he was sure some kind could look like this. Not sure of what to do he didn’t touch Joe as he moved a little closer and he talked quietly.

“Joe? Can you hear me?”

It looked like Joe’s attention was directed at him for just a second, but he couldn’t be sure.

“Joe.” Byron felt the panic rising from his stomach and he turned up the volume. “Joe! Wake up!”

As if someone has turned on a switch, Joe’s whole body jumped, and he pushed himself backwards to a seating position. His breathing sped up and he looked confused around the room. Byron quickly moved to sit on the edge of the couch and grabbed Joe’s shoulder and hand.

“Calm, down. It’s over.”

Joe’s eyes found Byron’s and before he could say anything else, Joe hugged him tight. “Thanks.”

Joe was still a little winded when he let go and looked at Byron.

“What the hell was that?” The larger man had no idea what was going on and had to admit to himself that he was in fact still freaking out.

Joe sat up more and swung his feet to the floor. He looked down at his knees. “I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed, but I just thought it was from working too much or something like that.”

“I’ve looked it up. It’s called sleep paralysis.”

Byron had heard about that, but he didn’t know much about it. “Is it that thing where you wake up, but your body isn’t?”

Joe nodded. “It’s scary as hell.”

Byron could see that Joe was embarrassed about this. Joe didn’t easily scare from real-life-stuff. Games and movies sure, but they were made to scare you, but nightmares or high pressure situations, didn’t rally get to him. He wanted to help but he wasn’t sure what to do or if Joe would even except it.

“Isn’t there anything to do about it?”

Joe looked up at Byron, resignedly. “I’m supposed to get more sleep. Being tired makes it worse.” He got up and went for the bedroom. Before he walked through the door he turned and looked at Byron, who had quietly followed.

“How am I supposed to do that, when I’m scared to fall asleep?” he walked into the room and closed the door.

Byron looked at the closed door for a few seconds before going back and eating his dinner in the couch. He wasn’t tired anymore and when he sat the empty plate down he found his laptop and searched for anything to help Joe.

* * *

Byron hadn’t slept much that night. He’d spent hours to try and find something that could help, and when he’d finally went to bed, he’d found himself listening for noises coming from Joe’s room. He was in the kitchen when Joe joined him.

“Mornin’.”

“Mornin’. You look more tired than me.”

Byron had a hard time believing that. Joe looked like someone had poured twenty energy drinks down his throat and waited for them to stop working before waking him up all night.

“Did you sleep any?”

Joe nodded and sat down. “Yeah a little. I didn’t have anymore, but it took a long time to fall asleep.”

Byron brought over some eggs and bacon for both of them and sat joined Joe at the table. “We need to figure out something. You can’t go on like this.”

Joe looked up, surprised. He shook his head in confusion. “ _We_ don’t need to do anything. I’ll figure this out, I’m sure it’s just a phase.”

Byron nodded silently and started eating. He could feel the tension in the room building around them, to the point where he thought, that if he didn’t say anything, it would smother both of them.

“What have you tried?”

Joe put his fork on the plate and stared at his hands. He shrug his shoulders and talked quietly. “The normal stuff, I guess. Dropping caffeine, turning off screens before sleep and eating better.”

Byron nodded to himself before trying again. “You know it’s not a dream, right?”

At that, Joe looked up. “I know. I’m living it every night. It’s real, at least to me.”

“No, Joe. Not just to you. It’s real. You’re not sleeping, you’re awake.”

Joe looked confused. He bit his lip as if he wanted to say something but chose not to, and Byron took it upon himself to explain further.

“It’s because you wake up in a part of your sleep that is not meant for that, so your body takes longer.”

“So, I’m not just almost awake? I mean I thought it was when I was about to wake up but couldn’t.”

Byron noticed a relief in Joe’s face. It must have been horrible to think that he wasn’t able to wake up. No wonder he didn’t want to sleep.

“You’re completely awake. It’s just your muscles that are not ready yet, they kinda gets turned off when we sleep so we don’t run outside butt naked when we’re dreaming.”

Joe chuckled, and seeing that, Byron relaxed enough to do so too.

“How long was you up reading last night?” Joe was suddenly looking very curious at him.

“Well. An hour, maybe two.” That was a direct lie, he’d used at least three, but he wasn’t really sure how long after that.

Joe’s smile stiffened, and he looked down. “I…”

“What Joe?”

He bit his lower lip again and wringed his hands.

“C’mon. Let me help if I can.”

“It’s not it.”

“Then what?” Byron was starting to get worried about Joe’s mental state. He didn’t usually shot down like this, he was normally pretty open about most stuff.

“I… I scared you last night, didn’t I?”

Byron’s heart fell to his stomach. Joe was scared and so grateful that he’d woken him, that he’d almost forgot hos scared he was before Joe woke up.

“Sure but you had to have been more scared.” Byron whished that he could see Joe’s face, so he could detect if any of this registered, but Joe kept looking down. “Joe… Joe look at me.”

Slowly Joe looked up, still biting his lip.

“Listen. I read a lot about this last night. Please let me try and help.”

Joe nodded slowly and sent Byron a short smile. “Okay, but it’s not just about not being able to move.”

Byron moved his empty plate aside and pushed Joe’s closer to the smaller man, indicating that he should eat.

“Tell me how it is, then.”

Joe picked up the fork and started eating while he spoke. “I wake up, and the first thing I notice is that I can’t move. Only sometimes my fingers. My chest is not working, it’s like someone is sitting on it and I can’t breathe. The worst thing is the sounds.”

Byron had read about all of this but listening to Joe telling about it happening to him was almost too much for him to handle. He could see the fear and desperation looking at him from Joe’s eyes.

“What do you hear?”

Joe swallowed what he had in his mouth and shook his head to himself. “It’s like someone is in the room, not exactly footsteps but someone moving around and then there’s the breathing.”

Joe shook like shaking off a chill. “So, lay it on me doc. Am I loosing my mind?” Joe smiled but there was a trace of earnestness in his gaze.

Byron didn’t feel comfortable in the role of knowing stuff. He’d only looked it up on the internet the day before, and he’d never felt it himself. How was he going to help Joe out of this? And how wat it okay for him to plant a seed of hope in Joe what he had no idea what they were dealing with?

“You’re not loosing your mind, Joe.” Of that he was sure and could send Joe a smile. “I know that the breathing thing is because we’re only using our diaphragm when sleeping, our chest muscles is turned off too.”

Joe cleared the table and moved to the couch, Byron followed and sat down in the other, noticing that Joe was thinking hard about something.

“But, I’m suffocating.” Joe’s hands started shaking enough that Byron could see it even when the smaller gut was wringing them in his lap.

Byron sat next to Joe and placed a heavy hand over Joe’s and looked him in the eyes. “I know that I have no idea what it feels like, but you’re getting enough oxygen, and if you can relax you wont used it up too fast and it wont feel like that. It’s the same thing about the nightmare stuff. It’s you mind making everything worse because you’re freaking out.”

Joe sat still for a moment, still shaking under Byron’s hand.

“So, what you’re telling me is that I just have to relax?”

Byron nodded. “That’s what everyone is saying.”

“But I have no control over that.” Joe was clearly confused, and ready to leave this conversation behind.

Byron squeezed his hand and smiled at him. “Joe it’s not a nightmare, remember? You’re awake, you can think, and you can tell yourself that you’ll be able to move soon.”

Joe pulled his hands from Byron and pushed himself back against the armrest and pulled his knees to his chin. Arms wrapped around his legs he looked at Byron.

“What now?”

Byron shook his head. “That’s up to you. If you want me to stay in your bedroom tonight, I’ll do it. We can also pull our mattresses in here and have a slumber party on the floor, just till you get this thing under control.”

Joe looked at the floor where thy would be sleeping that night and then back at his roommate. “What if I don’t get it under control?”

Byron stood up and smiled at Joe. “You will. Now, you promised to come with, taking some photos. It’s perfect weather for it, and you could probably use the fresh air.”

* * *

That night they’d eaten dinner on the mattresses on the living room floor, and now they were both tugged in under their covers.

“You sure you don’t want me to stay awake?”

Joe chuckled. “Yeah, I’m sure. That would be too creepy to have you watching me sleep.”

Byron laughed and placed his phone on the floor between the mattresses and turned off the only light they had. “Just wake me if you… “ was it episodes or what? He couldn’t call them dreams.

“If I wake up after waking up?”

“Exactly.” Byron smiled to himself before pulling the cover to his jaw and got comfortable. He listened to Joe’s breathing for over an hour waiting for it to slow down, and to be convinced that the guy next to him was in fact sleeping. He looked at the outline of Joe’s black figure for almost half and hour after that before falling asleep himself.

* * *

“By… Byro…”

Someone shook his shoulder and Byron quickly recalled why he was here and who was next to him and sat up.

“Joe?”

Byron fumbled to find his phone, listening to Joe’s rapid breathing. When he got the light turned on it illuminated a frightened face looking pleadingly at him. Without thinking he sat next to Joe and hugged him tight. He felt the rapid breathing against his own chest as Joe wrapped his arms around him too.

When Joe was able to breathe calmly, he let go of Byron. The larger man still had an arm around his friend’s shoulders. “How bad was it?”

“I… It was scary to wake up paralyzed, but I actually calmed myself down quickly.” Joe pulled his legs up and wrapped his arms around them. “But it took too long. I panicked, and everything came back.”

Byron rubbed Joe’s upper arm firmly. Then he looked at his face. “Joe. Look at me.”

Joe slowly looked up and met the big smile Byron sent him. “You did it. You know that, right?”

“But I didn’t.”

Byron ruffled Joe’s hair. “You did, just not long enough, but you’ll get there.”

Joe’s face lighted up a little and he took Byron’s free hand firmly in his.

“Thanks… again.”

Byron was relieved that something was working, only a little, but it was something.

“Joe. Listen.” Joe looked up at Byron, slightly scared by his decisive tone of voice. “We’ll sleep here as long as you’re waking up scared from this.”

Joe took in air as if he was going to object, but Byron wouldn’t let him. “I’m sure when you learn how to do this, you’ll be able to sleep more and there wont be as many, maybe it will stop completely. But for now, I’m here when you wake up, hopefully that will make it easier for you to fall asleep too.”

“But, Byron…”

“I’m not arguing. Now are you ready to sleep some more? It’s four in the morning.”

Joe hugged Byron tight. “Thank you. I...”

“Sure thing, now sleep some more. Should I stay awake this time?”

Joe shook his head and laid down. Byron moved to his own mattress and turned off the light on his phone, while lying down himself.

Ten minutes later Joe was sleeping, and Byron soon followed.


End file.
